Alan B. Burdick v. Morris Takushi, Director of Elections, State of Hawaii John W. Waihee, Lieutenant Governor, State of Hawaii

In May 1986, Appellee Burdick notified Appellants Takushi and Waihee (Hawaii’s Director of Elections and Lieutenant Governor, respectively) that he wished to cast a write-in vote in the upcoming September primary. After consulting with the State Attorney General, appellants informed Bur-dick that Hawaii election laws do not provide for write-ins and that such votes would be disallowed or ignored. Burdick filed suit in federal district court claiming that in the upcoming primary and in future primaries and general elections he wished to vote for persons whose names would not appear on the printed ballot and that a ban on such write-in voting violates the United States Constitution. The district court agreed and granted summary judgment for Burdick.

Appellants argue that the district court should have abstained from deciding the merits of Burdick’s constitutional challenge because it is unclear whether Hawaii’s election laws prohibit write-in voting. We agree.

The Supreme Court has made it clear that “federal courts should abstain from decision when difficult and unsettled questions of state law must be resolved before a substantial federal question can be decided.” Hawaii Housing…